Pile carpets and methods of manufacture for carpets with improved finishing treatments have been the subject of a number of patent specifications including the Applicant's patent specification No. PCT/NZ98/00181 the description of which is incorporated herein by way of background.
After work done at the Applicant's research facility on the cause of shading, it was established that if the pile lean could be made more persistent so that it does not just lean over in any direction, depending on a few random footsteps, some types of pile-reversal might be prevented. After preliminary investigations into various methods of leaning the pile over and setting into a more permanent position, a promising method was found, as described herein.
It is an object of the present invention to so treat and condition a carpet to produce in the pile that state of pile lean normally manifested by the appearance of shading but with all the pile leaning substantially in one direction.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a method and apparatus of producing in a controlled manner uniform and unidirectional pile lean and to stabilise the pile lean with that orientation and to restrict reversal of the pile lean during actual use on the floor.